Cheetahs deaths: Amid reports of inhabitancy of cheetahs at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, which has led to deaths of nine big cats since March this year, a video showing the survillance system for the big cats was released on Friday. Head of Project Cheetah SP Yadav also said that no cheetah died at the Kuno National Park due to “hunting or poaching”.
Yadav, who is also a member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), also refuted reports that possible infection linked to radio collars could be the cause of deaths of cheetahs at Kuno National Park. Yadav added that radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs and there is monitoring through satellite too. Apart from this, a dedicated monitoring team keeps monitoring the location. Twelve cheetahs from South Africa arrived on February 18 at Kuno National Park after South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the re-introduction of Cheetahs in India. Eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia and were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022.
Meanwhile, the environment ministry and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have told the Supreme Court that apart from the Kuno National Park, they have identified potential sites for cheetah introduction in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. These include Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh Bulge, Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and enclosure of Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan. They, however, said the Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve is at present not fit for accommodating Cheetahs, eight of which have died in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) in the last few months.
